Earlier this week Time Warner and Comcast both announced that they will be testing new methods of handling excessive bandwidth usage.

Time Warner
Time Warner announced that they will be charging an additional fee to users who download too much. This fee is on top of the monthly charge for "unlimited access". Specifically those customers who pay for 768 Kbps service will receive 5 GB per month. High end subscribers will receive up to 40 GB a month. Additional bandwidth will be sold at $1 a GB.

If this seems an odd way to do business we agree. Either offer truly unlimited Internet usage or a metered plan (price per GB). Either one is more acceptable in our opinion than the current plan.

This would be like walking into a buffet and paying only to receive a second bill at the end of the meal because you drank more than one Coke. If you go to Burger King and purchase a burger then you expect to pay more if still hungry. The idea of "unlimited access" with additional usage fees is wrong. If Time Warner wants to switch over to metered plans then thats fine. Just make it clear to customers and don't use the word "unlimited" in advertising.

Comcast
Comcast also announced that they will be testing a method to reduce network congestion during high traffic times. To do so they will throttle the speed of those using too much bandwidth. How do they define heavy bandwidth use? Your guess is as good as ours.

The testing will take place this summer in Chambersburg, PA and WArrenton, VA. The test will then expand to Colorado Springs, CO later in the summer.

Last year Comcast tested throttling peer to peer file sharing traffic to reduce network congestion. They did this without any announcement to customers. It outraged consumer groups and prompted the FCC to investigate whether Comcast violated Net neutrality.

This time around Comcast makes sure to point out that the throttling will not target specific traffic. They also do not define the level of usage that puts users in the "throttled group".

Conclusion
This article covers Time Warner and Comcast's attempts to reduce network congestion which will in turn reduce usage. Time Warner is doing so by charging for use above a monthly threshold. Comcast will throttle traffic for those using too much bandwidth.

This might have been alright in the days of email and simple web browsing. Now we rely on the Internet to deliver services including real time video. With the popularity of YouTube and similar video sites bandwidth usage will only increase.

An example that we cover is Netflix which now offers subscribers unlimited downloads from a library of over 8,000 movies and tv shows. Whether downloading via PC or set top box you can choose a movie and start watching almost instantly.

Many industry experts predict that movie downloads will surpass DVD rentals over the next 3-4 years. Companies like Netflix and Blockbuster are planning for the change. Take a look at our Netflix review for more details.

This is only the beginning of ISP's trying to reduce network traffic. ISP's have been selling us "unlimited" Internet access for years knowing full well that they could not provide this level of service. Now it is the customer who gets punished. There is something wrong with this picture.

It is important that customers voice their opinion on this topic. We would like to see the ISP's (specifically cable companies) spend money to upgrade and build out their infrastructure to handle the additional bandwidth needs. This who have traveled abroad lately know how far behind we are in the US when it comes to high speed Internet access.